Thoughts of a progressive Episcopalian. There's a lot more to my life than that, though.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Surfing Blogs

My silence over the past few weeks does not mean that I have been hibernating. Liz and I have been busy in many spheres -- in the past two weeks we have been in New York (and St. Louis) more than we have at Heart Lake. On Thursday, we came back to Heart Lake for ten days -- the end of our season for 2008. Every day, I check a few blogs --but outside pressures have occupied me and I have not found the time to write a coherent blog post. This morning, I do have some time and I am taking a new tack -- I'm going to blog as I surf.

First, I like to check the news -- today I went to Thinking Anglicans first and found coverage of the events in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Next I went to The Lead at Episcopal Cafe. There was coverage there of the hearings in the California Supreme Court on a church property case in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Then I checked in on Mark Harris at Preludium -- Mark seems to be marking time and has not had anything new since October 8th.

Over at Mimi's Wounded Bird I found a link to new blog called Father Geoff Farrow -- the name of its author, a courageous Roman Catholic priest in California who is defying the hierarchy and urging people to vote against Proposition 8 (which would ban gay marriage in the state.) It was this blog and its comments that inspired this post on following the links. One of the commenters on Father Geoff's blog was Michael-in-Norfolk, who has a blog of that name. Michael is a gay lawyer in Virginia who came out in mid-life. His blog has posts dating back to 2006 -- his recent posts (apart from daily"male beauty") deal mostly with politics and are anti McCain and Palin.

I decided to check out Michael's blogroll. The first link was to 1Body2Souls -A Gay Confession. This turns out to be a gay Indian man who describes himself as "living as a straight guy." He tells us that "being gay is punishable by law in India." He signs his posts Manav Desh and his blog is liberally sprinkled with pictures of guys. I found his blogroll too hard to follow so I tried the next on Michael's blog roll: Aman Yala, written by Sandouri Dean Bey(who signs himself Dean) and described as "reflections of a gay Greek-American musician in search of a hamam." The final post on this blog was dated Septemeber 27. A look at the archive list indicated that this was September 2007. I went to the comments on this last post and found the name Christopher. I thought it might be someone I recognized so I clicked on it and was led to Betwixt and Between. This is a blog I have visited before. Christopher is a gay Episcopal lay person in San Pablo, California, partnered with a German Lutheran pastor. He is a Benedictine Oblate-Novice and I have sometimes wondered if he is acquainted with Liz's (and thus my) aunt, Adele Hanson, who lives in Berkeley and is associated with a Benedictine Community in Oakland. Christopher's posts are generally llong, serious, and well thought out. His blogroll is also long and includes some blogs that have Morningsider on their rolls. He also has a section "Queer Takes" and links, for example to Boys Are Ugly But So Cute -- the personal blog of a very young man named Ryan.

For reasons I don't want to elaborate on, I decided not to follow that path any longer. I slept on it, and in the morning (Saturday the 11th) I decided to go back to Father Geoff's blog. In an open letter to his parish community Father Geoff said that he has been suspended as a priest by his bishop. When I checked, the first comment was by Brian R whose name I didn't recognize but who is gay Australian Anglican whose blog Noble Wolf has links to many of the blogs I normally read. Brian also has a post on the Last Night of The Proms which endears him to me.

I shouldn't be surprised that if I started with Wounded Bird I would end up back on home turf, so I am bowing to the inevitable. In the next installment I will visit one of the blogs on Brian's roll that is not that familiar to me (though the blogger, as a matter of fact, is familiar to me from comment threads.)

As for my blogroll I just add whoever request a link exchange, and don't question their content as long as they are not commercial. I feel it would be hypocritical of me as a closeted gay fighting for freedom if I were to censor my blogroll.

About Me

I'm a retired math teacher with a keen interest in English Literature. I have been active at my local Episcopal church for more than 50 years. My current project is to complete a history of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Manhattanville, which will have its 200th anniversary in 2023. I'm also working on
a family history for my first and second cousins and I hope to publish on the web a version of my Masters Essay on The Dunciad.